The founder of Tea With Strangers, Ankit Shah, shares strategies of how to truly become one with oneself and why learning to be alone is necessary in order to make meaningful connections. Ankit Shah is a person that cares deeply about our collective thoughtfulness and the things that bring us together. In various lives, he's been recognized as a community builder, a storyteller, an amateur photographer, a designer and a strategist.

He founded Tea With Strangers, a global community organization of hundreds of hosts who have brought over 50,000 people together in real life for small, meaningful group conversations. He also currently works at Facebook on their Community Partnerships Team, where he represents community builders on product teams that build tools to enable them. In past lives, he built programs at Airbnb to enable and connect their host community with refugees and other people in need of free temporary housing and started a nonprofit in India to support the educational and health needs of dalit children in the rural areas outside of Varanasi.

Ankit was raised in New York, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and is currently based in San Francisco, where he spends most of his free time walking, running, or hiking, bringing people together, and generally trying to stay aware of his environment. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx